Lulu pulled away first, but only to breathe.
As oxygen flooded back into her lungs, it was as if the veil that had parted when their lips met fell again. The production was over, and it was time to exit the theater where she would catch the first ride available to the real world. The world where she lived in the city, modeling, and he stayed down in Florida, with minimal texts between them over the first few weeks of their parting before being a contact name she faintly remembered as “the guy who drove me to New York one time.”
Her breath hitched at the transition taking over his face from dissociated joy to curiosity.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. The chill of the snow he lay on top of was already creeping back through his thin and soggy clothes.
“Nothing,” she said, almost whispering, and brushed back the dangling strands of her curly hair. “Just thinking about the drive.”
Drake’s head dropped back against the snow. “Yeah, I guess we should probably wrap up this detour.”
“Get back to the good stuff,” she agreed and crawled off of him. Lulu rose first, then helped him to his feet.
The moment had come and gone, but she still let him hold her hand as they walked back to the car. She also let him open the passenger side door for her.
In the time it took for him to jog around to the driver’s side, Lulu strapped in and glanced out the window, looking down the road at the row of houses, and saw a woman standing on the sidewalk by the park fence.
She was a fair distance away, but Lulu recognized the face and the expression on it.
Lulu’s finger hovered on the door handle, ready to pull it out and step back outside.
Then the driver’s side door slammed shut.
“Let’s get this heat cranking,” Drake said, mostly to himself. “We’ve still got that blanket, yeah?”
Drake pulled out of their parking spot, and Lulu pulled herself away from the woman on the sidewalk and reached into the back seat for the blanket.
“You want it?” she asked.
“No, I figured you might. How are your legs feeling?”
Lulu wrapped the motel blanket around her legs and dialed the heated seat up to its highest setting. “Not too bad,” she said.
She kept her eyes forward when they passed by the woman and through the neighborhood. Drake didn’t seem to notice the woman staring at their car.
They stopped at a gas station before returning to I-80. With the last of Lulu’s money, they filled the tank as much as they could afford to, but still came up just short of three-fourths of a tank.
“Think this’ll get us to the city?” Lulu asked.
Drake shrugged. “We’ll be getting there on fumes if we get there at all.”
“Not gonna be able to get lunch, though.”
“Or dinner,” Drake added. “Think you’ll make it?”
She nudged his side. “I’m still burning off that first breakfast. Come on. You can choose what we listen to for the last leg.”
All through the drive, Drake kept an eye on the tank and estimated miles. Within the first hour, he turned the heater down to low, and then off completely to try to save any extra miles he could get.
During the second hour, they turned the radio down, then off, and drove in silence. Lulu napped, holding the blanket tightly around herself. Drake drove for about two hours unmoving in his seat, with his head perched against his knuckles.
He drove slowly, and slowed down even more any time a flurry passed over them. Time passed. The sun reached its low winter peak and began to dip again. Navigation signs indicated New York City as being three hundred miles away. Then two hundred miles away. Around five thirty, they spotted a sign that told them it was only one hundred miles away.
Lulu’s stomach tore at her insides, but she didn’t say anything about it. If money did happen to fall into their laps, it would have to go toward gas.
Speaking of which, she thought, “How are we doing on gas?”
“We’ll make it,” Drake said. “Might be rolling in on fumes or having to push it by hand for the last mile, but we’ll make it.”
The wind picked up again, blowing a flurry hard against the damaged side of the car, and again Drake eased up on the gas.
“Should make it,” he corrected.
“How long do you think?”
Drake checked the clock on the dashboard, then guessed, “Two, two and a half hours? Unless we get stuck in Jersey City.”
Almost mindlessly, Lulu mused, “How bad would that be?”
Drake paused, keeping the car at a steady fifty-mile-per-hour cruise.
Now that the words were out there, Lulu felt more confident in them. “What difference will it make if we get there late tonight or early in the morning?”
“I guess we could turn the car in in Jersey. Take the train into the city in the morning.”
“Maybe I could get a little more cash out of Marsha,” Lulu added. “If she knows I’m just on the other side of the river-”
Drake cut her off. “Don’t bother. I’ve got a friend in Jersey. I’m sure he’d give us a place to crash. And food.”
At the mention, Lulu groaned with wanting. “That’d be nice.”
“Yeah, let’s aim for that.”
“How do you plan on paying for the train, then?”
“Kyle’s a half-decent guy. I’m sure he’d give me a loan.”
* * *
Kyle Welsh had an apartment in the Newport neighborhood, just next to the entrance of Holland Tunnel. Through a window at the end of the hallway where his front door stood on the twentieth floor, Drake and Lulu could witness New York being draped in a cloud of snow. The Holland Tunnel was still open when they came up on it, but why risk being trapped in there with a car on its last limb if something blocked it up?
Drake knocked on Kyle’s door again.
“Maybe he’s not home,” Lulu said.
“He’s home,” Drake said with an annoyed sigh. His body ached, and his feet hurt from the walk. He was cold, too, and he knew his friend heard the knocking. “Kyle’s boring. His idea of a good night is porn, beer, and video games.”
“I thought we were done shaming others,” she teased.
Finally, they heard footsteps on the other side of the door. They were heavy and quick, the sound of someone clearly very agitated and impatient. The pattering stopped just before crashing through the door, and was followed by a muffled, “What the shit?”
The door swung open, and Kyle stood before them in a bathrobe and slippers. He simultaneously looked like he hadn’t slept in a week and had just woken up. His hair was shaggy, and short beard patchy and unkempt.
“Drake! Hey! What, uh…” he glanced back and forth between Drake and Lulu. “What are you doing here?”
“Bad time to drop in? You busy?”
Kyle looked back up at Drake, and his face contorted as if he was about to kick him out of the building. But then he looked back at Lulu, and his expression changed from annoyance to confusion.
“Uh, yeah. No! I’m just… who’s this?”
“This is my friend, Lulu. Are you feeling alright?”
Kyle bounced on his heels and bit his lip anxiously. His face was turning red. “You couldn’t text me?” he asked, looking frustrated again at Drake. “Not really cool to turn up like this. Like this.” He jerked his head toward Lulu. His chest rose and fell in an attempt to keep himself composed.
It wasn’t difficult for Lulu to read the room. Not in an egotistical way, she knew that it was her presence that was keeping Kyle from giving Drake the boot. And from Drake’s brief description, she thought she could read him easily enough. It was just another negotiation over her FanGirlz DMs.
“If it’s an inconvenience,” she began. “I can just-”
Before she could say go, she knew the negotiating was already over.
“No!” Kyle blurted. He rubbed his eyes, then said, “Come in. Come in. Get in here. Sorry, just caught me a little off guard.”
Drake and Lulu followed him into the apartment, but not before picking up their bags hidden just beside the door.
“Planning on staying a while?” Kyle asked, jumping ahead to close his bedroom door.
“Just the night,” Drake said, and Lulu added, “If that’s not too much to ask. Drake said you were a really good friend.”
Drake leaned in and whispered, “Alright, calm down. We’re already in.”
Kyle, not having heard Drake, or too smitten with Lulu, laughed awkwardly. “Yeah? Well, I mean, I try to be a good friend. Guy. I try to be a nice guy. Can I get you anything?”
“Oh my God, a water would be great,” Lulu said in an overly friendly tone.
“What kind of beer do you have?”
Kyle’s eagerness dissolved when answering Drake. “IPAs.”
“I’ll pass. Where can I put our bags?”
Kyle filled a glass of water for Lulu from the tap. “Just leave them there. Wish you gave me time to clean up.” He gave Lulu the glass, and after one long sip, she said, “Speaking of, would it be too much to ask if I could use your shower?”
Again, he fumbled over his words. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Go for it. Bathroom’s just right over here.”
Lulu took another sip, then grabbed her backpack to bring it into the bathroom. The door shut, and there was dead silence until the shower turned on just under a minute later. The instant the water splashed onto the floor, Kyle jumped to the other side of the apartment, only inches from Drake.
“Holy fuck, man! What the hell is going on? No call, no text, I haven’t heard from you in three fucking years, and now you turn up out of nowhere, looking like this, smelling like shit, and with her! I’ve never even had a girl in my apartment, much less naked in my shower!”
“How else would they be in your shower? You don’t still shower in your bathing suit, do you?”
“I’m serious. What’s going on? Is this some kind of prank? Cruel joke?”
“What about this would be a joke?”
Momentarily unable to speak real words, Kyle made sounds and jerkily gestured toward the bathroom. “Her! Dude, how?”
Drake brushed past him to scour the refrigerator. “I thought you only had IPAs,” he said, pulling out a lager.
“I offered an IPA. Seriously dude. What the fuck? She’s-”
“Keep your voice down,” Drake snapped. “You don’t have to shout. She can probably hear you.” He pushed past Kyle again, heading for the couch by the window. There was no dining table or chairs in the studio apartment. Just the kitchen counter and a coffee table between the couch and a T.V. that was greatly oversized compared to the rest of the amenities.
The priorities of a single man.
Kyle pulled out one of the tall chairs by the kitchen counter, not having the thought to get himself his own drink, something he’d feel the need for in just a few minutes.
In a low voice, so as to be sure that Lulu didn’t hear them talking about her, he told his friend, “There was a mix-up on the plane from Miami and we just kinda got stuck together.”
Kyle was leaning in with eyes wide in anticipation. Surely that wasn’t the whole story Drake was willing to tell.
Drake grunted, clearing his throat, then went on. “Okay, there’s a whole lot to it. It was just this series of serendipitous moments. Like gravity, you know? Our seat was double-booked, we had to share a cab, then a room, the plane situation back out of Chicago was a mess, and one thing after another happened that kept bringing us back within arm’s reach. Believe me, I tried getting out of this whole mess. And it was a mess. Even she’ll tell you. I mean, we spent a night in jail!”
Kyle pulled the chair closer, the legs dragging with a stutter across the hardwood floor.
“So, what’s she like? Like, in real life?”
Drake shrugged, a tad confused at the question. He took a swig from his bottle, then answered, “A lot. A lot to handle. Very, um, she’s got a lot of energy at all times. But like, up energy. For most of this trip, everything was so chaotic, so frustrating. It felt like every mile something was pushing me back or telling me to just go home to Miami. But Lulu, she could not be beaten down. I’ve never met someone so ready to just take the world on. You get to know her, and you see just how against her the whole world is, and none of it ever bothers her. She takes absolutely everything she can in stride. And the things she can’t, she accepts and still manages to push through. There was absolutely nothing she was going to let get in her way this week, even when we were starving, tired, without cash, without service, or in custody.
“And you know what’s crazy? She’s not even doing it with rose colored glasses. She knows exactly what’s up. She’s not deluding herself. She just has this serenity about her. And courage to make the changes in her life that she believes in. That’s probably why I couldn’t get away from her. I’m too busy being stuck on the things I can’t change, and not the things I can. Lulu’s somehow changed that for me.”
Drake let the bottle swing under his fingers in a circle. He wondered, if he focused hard enough could he hear any sign of her other than the water hitting the shower floor? It felt like an eternity she’d been in there, enjoying her much-deserved hot shower. And how could it not? It was probably the longest amount of time since Chicago that they hadn’t been within earshot of each other.
Once again, Kyle dragged his chair closer to the coffee table, the rubbing of its legs against the floor tearing Drake from his musings.
“Wait, so are you two a thing now?”
Drake’s head sank as it shook. “Nah, I guess not. Just a wild road trip. I probably won’t see her again after tomorrow.”
“So, did you at least hook up?”
Drake knew it was coming, but the question still threw him off. “What?”
“You said you shared a room, right? Girls love that kinda thing. ‘Oh, no! I have to share a hotel with this hot stranger! Maybe I should suck his dick!’ That’s the only thing girls read about.”
“And you know what anybody is reading? When was the last time you read a book?”
“I don’t need to. I got something better.” Kyle jumped off the chair and called Drake over to his bedroom. “You’re gonna want to see this. Just close the door behind you.”
Drake followed him into the room. The overhead light was off, but blue and purple neon lights lit up the space from the wall above and opposite Kyle’s computer setup.
“Still trying to be a streamer?” Drake asked.
“I’d have a good shot at it if you could still get me an early copy of that game you’re working on. You’re still doing the art for it, right?” Kyle woke his computer up and began searching for a program.
“No, I kinda bailed on it,” Drake said, almost ashamed. After his big speech about Lulu’s fortitude, he considered that maybe he didn’t have to shoot himself in the foot over working on board-approved products.
“Gay,” Kyle said flatly. “Alright, look.”
Drake stared at the screen. His blood began to heat up. “Where did you find that?”
Lulu was on the screen. She was kneeling upright on a bed with one hand between her thighs and one hand playing with her exposed breast. Kyle rushed to turn the volume down so the moans coming from the speakers didn’t reach the bathroom.
“That’s someone else,” Drake said defensively. Sure, it looked like her, but Lulu had her red lines. Underwear was the furthest she went. For the sake of redundancy, Drake added, “Lulu wouldn’t do that.”
“Yeah, but A.I. would. Dude, I know that girl. I knew I knew her. Her stuff is all over Reddit. You don’t even have to sub cause her profile has like zero protection. It sucks she doesn’t get naked, but that’s what A.I. is for. Kinda funky sometimes, though. Right there you can see it looks like she might have a tattoo or something on her side, but the app doesn’t know what to do with it.”
The shower turned off, leaving the only sound in the apartment the fan from Kyle’s computer, then the pat of Drake’s hand dropping onto Kyle’s shoulder.
Quietly, he leaned in and whispered, “Delete everything you have of that, or I’m going to break this computer over your fucking head.”
Kyle spun around slowly in his chair. The stern glare from Drake was all he needed to see. No follow-up questions, no argument. He knew he was seconds away from a concussion at best if the fan didn’t stop spinning before it sucked up and tore at his hair and scalp.
“Y-yeah. Sure, okay. Whatever you say, man.”
He spun back around, and Drake watched closely as Kyle scourged his computer for all the files he had of Lulu, real or generated.
About a minute later, after Drake ensured that everything was scrubbed, Lulu called them from the hallway. “You guys still here?”
“We need a ride into the city in the morning,” Drake whispered. “If you spot us some money for the train, I won’t say shit.”
“What an awesome trade-off. I already deleted all my porn for you. Now I gotta fund your trip? Why don’t I just kick you out?”
“Like you’re gonna let your dream girl think bad of you. Let’s go. Why don’t you try to impress a real woman and act like a decent host.”
Lulu knocked on the bedroom door. “Drake, you guys in there?”
He opened the door to see her dressed again in her white tank top and shorts. Her hair was still wet, and the curls erratic.
“Hey, yeah. How was the shower?” he asked.
She let out a pleasurable moan and said, “Needed. What are you guys doing?”
Drake glanced over his shoulder at Kyle. “We were just looking for his air mattress. He’s gonna sleep on it tonight so you can take his bed.”
Kyle’s glare shot toward Drake, and Drake postured himself to let Kyle know he should play nice.
Lulu reached through the doorway and flicked the light switch on, almost blinding Kyle. “That should probably help.” Then, to Kyle, “I don’t mind taking the air mattress. Really, I appreciate everything you’ve done already.”
Instead of Kyle responding, and likely accepting her offer, Drake turned to face her and said, “No, really, it’s fine. I told you he was a good guy, didn’t I?”
Behind them, Kyle spoke up. “Ah, darn. I guess I don’t actually have one. Really thought I did.”
“Then you and I can share the couch,” Drake ordered, again speaking over his shoulder to Kyle.
“I don’t mind sharing the couch,” Lulu said, speaking only to Drake. “It’d still beat last night.”
“Really, it’s alright,” he assured her. “Besides, Kyle and I can catch up.”
* * *
An hour after Lulu had fallen asleep in Kyle’s bed, he and Drake were still awake in the living room on their third and fourth beer, respectively. Drake sat on a string of pillows on the floor, making up his mattress.
The images on Kyle’s computer still lingered in the air around them like an uninvited neighbor at a pool party, and the looping conversation was inescapable.
“Still gonna be on the floor when I wake up?” Kyle asked.
“Yes,” Drake said for the umpteenth time.
“It’s not gonna be comfortable down there,” Kyle said from the couch.
“It already isn’t.”
“You know she wants you, right?”
“I know.”
“You know, if I were you, I wouldn’t waste that chance. Especially with someone like her. I mean, you know how many guys are throwing money at her just to see her in her panties, while she was practically begging you to fuck her.”
“I know,” Drake said again.
“You don’t even have to keep things going or do all the bullshit boyfriend things! This is your last chance to bang her, then never worry about her again. I’m telling you, I won’t even complain that you’re doing it in my bed. Just please, do it for me. Let me bang her vicariously through you.”
“You got a blanket I can borrow?”
“Can I at least shoot my shot in the morning if you don’t?”
“You can if you don’t blow your load again every time she looks at you.”